Will Cain Country - Would An NBA or NFL Player Be Able To Play In The Other League?

Episode Date: May 10, 2024

On this edition of The Will Cain Show’s Friday sports episode, Will sits down with the Hosts of OutKick’s Hot Mic w/ Hutton & Withrow, Chad Withrow and Jonathan Hutton. They discuss which sport's athletes would best be able to play another professional sport. Plus, the gang discusses the NBA playoffs and LIV Golf’s new trade mechanism, as well as the threat of foreign money taking over American sports.    Tell Will what you thought about this podcast by emailing [e-mail]   Subscribe to The Will Cain Show on YouTube here: Watch The Will Cain Show!   Follow Will on Twitter: @WillCain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Would it be easier to take 30 NBA players and have them make a roster in the NFL or easier to take 30 NFL players and have them make a roster in the NBA? Let's boil it down. Easier to find five tight ends in the NBA or five NBA stars playing tight end in the NFL. Let's break it down. It is the Will Cain Show. streaming live Monday through Thursday, 12 o'clock Eastern Time, Fox News.com, Fox News YouTube, Fox News, Facebook. And always on demand to listen on Apple or on Spotify.

Just hit subscribe, or you can watch The Will Cain Show by subscribing on YouTube. This is our Friday edition of Cain on Sports. I want to talk about that hypothetical, introduced by Austin Rivers, who can more easily transition into the others league, NFL or NBA stars. Plus, let's talk about what does everyone want me to talk about at this time of year? There's no LeBron, there's very little NFL, so what actually moves the needle in sports talk? Plus, did you know there are teams and live? Neither did I.

We're going to break all this down with the guys from Hot Mike, Jonathan Hutton, and Chad Withrow, right here on the Will Cain Show. It is time to take the quiz. It's five questions in less than five minutes. We ask people on the streets of New York City to play along. Let's see how you do. Take the quiz every day at thequiz.com. Then come back here to see how you did. Thank you for taking the quiz.

Hey, I'm Trey Gowdy host of the Trey Gatty podcast. I hope you will join me every Tuesday and Thursday as we navigate life together and hopefully find ourselves a little bit better on the other side. Listen and follow now at Foxx. News Podcast.com from the Fox News Podcasts Network. Hey there, it's me. Kennedy, make sure to check out my podcast. Kennedy saves the world. It is five days a week, every week.

Download and listen at Fox Newspodcast.com or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. The hosts of Hot Mike, Jonathan Hutton, and Chad Withrow here on the Will Cain show. What's up, fellas? Well, good to see you, man. Hope things are well. great to be back on will a lot of stuff going on so we can't wait to get into it yeah i'm glad to have you guys back let's do let's start with the debate that uh well sports is in a weird place and i told my guys you know um it i am actually i'm not getting much sleep i'm watching a ton of

sports um i'm watching the stars and the mavericks and i happen to like soccer so i'm watching a lot of sports right now and baseball a little bit already but there's though none of those things lend themselves to national sports talk you know if you if you do sports talk and you want to appeal to a broad audience

I learned this when I was at ESPN this time of year is about LeBron James and it was you could do some Golden State Warriors during their dynastic run but you don't have either of those anymore so I don't even know what the boys over at ESPN are doing I don't know what you guys are doing at Hot Mike

like this is when you go but nobody wants to hear my take on Luca here's the deal So sports fans, they want their top 40 radio. Chad and I discuss this all the time. We'll see if you agree. Sports talk radio, sports talk discussion, no different than turning on and listening to your top 40 in the country. Let's just say, I don't know who has the number one hit.

You guys know, has a number one. Probably Taylor Swift. I don't know, but probably. You're tuning in to hear Taylor Swift on the hour every hour. You'll stick around if you hear Kesha, but you know that Taylor Swift is still coming back around and you're going to hear Taylor Swift again. That's football. Yeah. That's the NFL and that's the SEC and the Big Ten, Chad.

I mean, that's, you talk football every day and then work in everything else. Yeah, and, you know, I think you're right, Will, though. You can't, you don't want to get in the weeds of being very specific about the Mavs game or the Stars game or even the New York Rangers game. But when Pat Beverly chucks a basketball off a woman's head and then fires another basketball off another fan, everybody can talk about that, right? When there's any type of controversial moment. within an individual game. We're going to be talking about a Jamal Murray, throwing a towel and then throwing a heating pad onto the court

during an NBA playoff game. That lends itself to some fascinating discussion about the NBA, their players, the lack of respect for their own fans, lack of respect for the game itself at times. So we get into a lot of those things, but in the idea of playing the hits, the way you would at a top 40 station,

I think right now, NIL and college sports, NBA, whether even you're talking about specific series, whether or not it's a viable product right now with their television rights coming up and a lot of different people bidding on them. There's still plenty to talk about, but you are right. You've got to focus in on whatever that LeBron James was when you're hosting daily sports talk radio will. Whatever that topic is, you've got to be laser focused on it at times. I mean, people used to always say, why do you guys always talk about the same thing? And it's not just NFL, by the way, is quarterbacks, and it's the Dallas Cowboys. So, like, the Taylor Swift, the top 40 of sports talk is the Dallas Cowboys, any kind of quarterback debate competition.

It is cultural issues to your point. You can kind of do the stuff around the game, but that's not really talking about the game. and it was LeBron. And it just kind of highlights how important LeBron is to that league. I mean, there was a moment. It was like, okay, will Kevin Durant be the centerpiece of a conversation? He's not anymore. And if you look at the young guys that are studs, and they're legit, amazing basketball players.

Like, for me, I'm such a Dallas guy that Luca feels that way to me, but I recognize he's not that for the greater national audience. But think about this. It could be like wolves and thunder. Anthony Edwards is amazing. Like, he is really good, and maybe eyes are going to get open to him this year. But he's not a national conversation piece. Maybe the Boston Celtics can be in a way.

I don't know. But to me, it underlines how important LeBron has been for two decades to that league. At a time when what you just bring up, their sports rights are up. I mean, it looks like ESPN and Amazon are getting a piece. piece, and it's between T&T and NBC for that third piece, which means it could be the end of inside the NBA with, you know, Chuck and Kenny and Ernie and Shaq if T&T doesn't get it. But NBA desperately needs its new LeBron. Everyone's over the age of 35 right now.

That would be the next guy, right, Chad, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant. The younger pieces, it's interesting because the small markets, there is no real small market in the NFL. You know, you can have Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City. You can have Josh Allen and Buffalo. Yonnes in Milwaukee does what for the league? I mean, he's a massive name. He's a star, but he's not the next guy.

I don't view him in the same sentence as I do, Durant and Steph Curry, but those aren't the faces of the NBA either. And they're not American. I mean, I do think that we still have a bit of an issue with that in terms of becoming an American sports sensation. And that's not to say that Americans hate foreigners or they hate Luca because he,

he's not from here or Joker because he's not from here. I don't think that's true at all. I think most American basketball fans love and appreciate those guys and their games and the way they play and they like watching them play. But I do think Will to become a true LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, Steph Curry, level superstar. It's important to be American. And there's not a ton of American superstar talents that are in the running for that.

Right now, outside of maybe Anthony Edwards and what we're watching with a run for Minnesota, if they can go on a run and capture an NBA title and he keeps playing like this, maybe he can be that next guy, but I really don't think so. Maybe Shea Gilgis, Alexander, who knows? You know, I did a show this week on the Wilcane Shore. I talked to this guy from Britain. We talked about, like, culture. And, you know, identifying that a culture exists is just an acknowledgement of reality.

Like, I love Luca. And Yanis, by the way, is one of my favorite players because he's awesome, yeah, but he's a great dude. But I agree with you. Like, he'll never be the face of the NBA for two. I mean, there's no language barrier with Janus and very little with Luca anymore, but, or with Yokic. But they come in. English is the second language. Their names, Janice Antitaku, Luca Donchich, you know, Nicola Yokic.

It takes a while for Americans to even learn how to pronounce them. I agree with you. it's important that the top star be American, and I actually think that's part of what's hurting baseball. I mean, baseball, we've had Mike Trout and Bryce Harper, but, you know, I don't know how many stars are necessary in baseball for it to, that's another underwritten thing. No, baseball doesn't even make the top 40 at all, ever, so for national talk.

But I do think that's played a role, the fact that baseball, I mean, this is all to the diversity is our. strength. Well, not always. It's not actually helping the popularity of baseball in terms of creating stars. But just look at the marketing campaigns and the faces of that. Well, and also, you know, it correlates in ratings a lot of times. Baseball is on the way back up with attendance and ratings and everything else. But you hit on a good point there, Will. America was our game. It's America's game. Cooperstown, New York, right? I mean, this is our thing. And we handed it over to the world and they took it and ran with it. And that's not a bad thing for the product of

baseball. It's made the game richer. It's made the game better worldwide. But I think it does have a negative effect on having that American superstar. And I would say the same about this. You talked about having a British person on your show. You know, Tim Howard, when he's playing in the EPL, Tim Howard's catching a lot of crap from fans over there because they're saying, this American, this yank can't be as good as other guys. He plays a certain way. He does certain things a certain way and that's not our game over here and I'm fine with that right I mean if that is that's a bigger sport in their country it's their thing when a foreigner comes over and suddenly starts playing there there's going to be questions about their play style there's going to

be questions about their competition when they were growing up playing also I think a lot of the same things happen with basketball and baseball specifically because it's seen as an American sport, first and foremost, even though these international superstars are terrific for the game, it doesn't mean that's going to translate into a huge box office draw for all American sports fans. And I'm fine with that, just like I'm fine with the Brit, who doesn't like the American invading the English Premier League and wanting to be a European superstar all of a sudden as an American playing football in England. Well, the other thing, too, the NFL is a NFL is just, it's, it has better leadership.

They look forward. They're forward thinking. The Major League Baseball is in the middle of a crisis with their rights for the television broadcast. And if they'll never have that happen, you've got the NBA in negotiations, they're going to be spread out now. And they're a player run league instead of the ownership all the way down. It looks like the players control all that.

Same with the NBA for that matter. Hey, I'm thinking, though, from the NFL's point of view, Chad's right about the, you know, the American, you're not going to have that, you know, I'm going to have the European twist on whatever American football is like we've seen right now in basketball. But at the same time, they're just better storytellers. They're better at marketing.

They're individual brands. And those dudes wear face masks. You can't even see them on game day. And you know who they are when they walk down the street. You can't do that with Major League Baseball. They don't embrace it. They don't embrace the social media aspect of it behind the scenes. They didn't like when cameras were on when individual players were doing blogs.

in clubhouses, and the NBA is just unlikable. I think that would be the word I would use in many of the cases. You don't know much about the players, but when you do see the headlines, you're not very fond of whatever is the content involved. The NFL is the opposite, and that's where all the marketing dollars are. No matter what you're watching, a commercial is involved with their brand, and the other leagues don't have that. What do you guys think about what Austin Rivers had to say on the Pat McAfee show?

Austin Rivers, and this was the big sports debate of this week, Austin Rivers said he could get 30 NBA players to play who could make the NFL, but they couldn't get 30 NFL players who could make the NBA. Now, there's a numbers game that makes it, I almost want to set that aside. The numbers game messes it up. Yeah, there's 53 guys on a roster in the NFL, so there's a lot more opportunities in the NFL. But everybody's kind of crushing him, JJ Watts, crushing him. everybody i actually think austin rivers is on to something like the number 30 is kind of what got everybody's attention but if we take the number and say 10 i think austin's going to have a lot easier time finding 10 NBA dudes that can play in the NFL than jj's going to find 10 NFL dudes

that can play in the NBA there's some dudes that can ball the NFL though yeah i'm i am a million percent in agreement with austin rivers and i think with you on this will i i have long said the NBA they're the best athletic specimens in the world. And these guys could translate and play a number of other sports, right? Not necessarily skill specific sports. I don't think everybody can go hit a baseball at 97 mile per hour or something like that. But football, I mean, just two examples that come to mind. Could Glenn Big Baby Davis have gone over and played defensive end at his size as a guy who is kind of a middling player in the NBA? Could he go play football? Yeah. Kendrick Perkins, who Charles Barkley just got

done making fun of for his playing career. After Kendrick Perkins. Perkins took shots at Shaq and Charles Barkley, could he have played in the NFL? I think absolutely. And I could go down the list. You know, would LeBron James have been a dynamic, tight end, wide receiver in the NFL at, you know, six foot eight, 250 pounds with his athleticism? Possibly, I think he could have done that. So, I mean, and that's just a number of examples. Yeah, I think the size, which way do you think this? Athleticism ratio would help with the NBA going to crossing over that way which way does this cut which way does the tight end thing cut so we could rattle off college basketball players that became great NFL players right

mostly at the tight end position Tony Gonzalez Antonio Gates uh Jeremy Graham um there's more I'm just free Jimmy Graham yeah uh there's more I'm there's another tight end but there there's does that mean though that those are NFL players that had they given more attention to playing basketball through college could have been NBA players, or is that show that basketball guys can go become NFL players? I think it shows that mediocre college basketball players that fit a certain athleticism that also play football or that could play football could go and have a football future as opposed to the other way around. Basketball requires a lot more skill, right? And I'm not, this is not me demeaning football because football requires a lot

more courage, and there's certainly a lot of skill involved. But if you have the courage within you to go take a hit and to go lay it on the line the way those guys do, I can find you plenty of mid-major power forwards that have the athleticism to go put on pads and give it a shot. And I'm not just talking about tied-in. I'm talking about in some cases defensive tackles that are really athletic. Could be a defensive end. Could be a pass rusher from a number of spots, right um slot receiver are there support guards i'm a little more hesitant that could be slot receivers i think they're wrong who's going to spend the football well i'm not saying i'm not saying i'm not going to make an defensive and defensive tackle i'm just saying they could have that

well that's what austin rivers is saying right austin rivers is saying that you could do that like you make an entire well let's let he said he could do that yeah let's let's let's let's let's let's let's let's let's modify what he said by the way i don't agree i think defensive in and defensive tackler are going to be two of the harder positions to fill because the soft versus hard thing. Like, I'm not, you know, I'm not sure those guys are ready to go line it up on the defensive line. But I, so I'm going to take two positions.

If I said to you right now, it's hypothetical, but we're going to narrow it in. I want you to find your five NBA players that could play tight end versus I want you to take five tight ends that you could think could make the NBA, which transfer of that position alone. And then, by the way, we could do it separately with receiver. Like we could say, all right, I'll take. you know, five guards, either point guard or shooting guard, and then you can have Odell and a few other,

because I think Odell is probably the most athletic dude I've ever seen. Odell and a few other receivers, which crossover has more success? Like, stick with tight ends, I think. Tight end for sure is, that's leaning NBA for sure. Now, I do think I can play tied in tomorrow. I think, yes. So the tight end comparison is a good one.

I could find you five NBA players who could be starters in the NFL if they decided to go play football at tight-in. Now, I could also find you five NFL tight-ins that I think could give you good minutes in the NBA, right? They're not going to score a ton of points. Really? I do think it's athletic enough of a position where you could have a crossover where they could go and do something. You know, they could defend someone. They could rebound. They could help you out in some way.

Are they going to be stars, though? No. But I think star potential would go to the NBA player. crossing over to Titan the NFL. I'm thinking of my time, Will, in the locker rooms, and some of the really just bad NFL players were really, really good basketball players. Justin Hunter comes to mind, wide receiver for the Titans.

He could ball, and he would not, he wasn't tough enough. He wouldn't step up and actually block anyone in a run-based scheme. That was his big problem, right? It doesn't always transfer over, but that was the sport that he was best at, where he ends up being a second round pick. The other thing, Drake May apparently can straight up hoop, too. That was the other, the big draft note.

Yeah, like, I mean, I'll take the quarterback that I know can at least play the position. There are other spots, too, that I don't necessarily think transfer over. Tide in, though, that's where the NBA makes their money if they're playing the NFL game. Drake May had a brother that played at UNC, right? And then he had another brother, I think that's a pitcher. I don't know if they made the majors but like the three brothers Okay that takes me to another theory I want to run by you guys

This one is not well fleshed out This is a baseball theory that I've been watching So baseball for me is like anybody else I think I am I could name you the top 10 Prospects in the Texas Rangers farm system Easier than I could name for you The starting lineup of the Yankees Like I just it's very

localized for me. And I've been noticing something about the Rangers prospects when it comes to pitching. And I think this is league-wide. That, you know, at 26, 27 years old, you can't give up on a pitcher. It's kind of fascinating. While every other sport, you know what they're going to be by really, it's getting younger and younger, right? But baseball pitchers, it's like you don't know and you got to keep them around at

AA, and you've got to let them go through a Tommy John surgery or two. And then after all that time, you actually may end up with an ace, much less a guy in the starting rotation. And it made me think, because my producers told me this, it's been 26 years since Kerry Wood struck out 20 dudes for the Chicago Cubs. And so this theory I've had is like, if you are a pitcher who arrives at like age 20 and you're the early bloomer, you're really only going to last about four or five years. Like, I don't know the guy who's come in at 20, and we're all celebrated him, and he's still there at 32.

Meanwhile, the guy that arrives at 26 or 27, I do feel like you get 10 years out of him. I'm just trying to make sense on when is a good time for a pitching prospect to arrive. Well, and you mentioned Kerry Wood. I mean, the thing about Mark Pryor, as another guy who was very young, right, and kind of piqued very young into his career. Another thing I think about that game, that Kerry Wood game, you're a Texas guy, Will, so you remember this. he struck out 20 Houston Astros in those terrible Astros jerseys that was like the transition from the old school Astros where it was like the gray and the navy blue.

I don't like those jerseys. I think that a lot of people get paid a lot of money and no one really has any idea because it's all a unique character base with the pitcher and what's going to matter. To your point, Will, I feel like if you are six foot three and above and left-handed and can throw 95-plus miles per hour, you're going to have a lengthy Major League Baseball career as a middle reliever.

I also feel like I watch a little bit more college baseball now, and every single pitcher in college can throw 95-plus miles per hour, and almost none of those guys are going to have a Major League Baseball career. So both of those things can't be true, right? So what is the secret formula for age, for do you go and play three or four years in college? Do you go straight to the minor leagues? When's the right time to break someone in the majors?

I think it's so non-specific and that it is very specific to each individual case that I don't know that we're ever really going to have an answer. It's a great question. And it's got me thinking about it. I don't know that there's the right formula per se for how to keep someone around for a long time in the major. I think the secret is the older you get,

the more you're developing a second and third pitch that you can ace, you can master. You don't necessarily need that in college baseball. Everyone can be Kenny Powers right now in college baseball, right? You have to have that. Tom Glavin said on our show, Chad. He said, you know, where's the guy that can pitch 87 and get the strike out, you know, that can master the corn. And can mix speeds.

It knows exactly where to throw it at 87. That's way different from the Braves pitching staff of that era with Maddox and Steve Avery and all, you know, compared to what we're seeing across baseball now, I don't know who's really got that third, the second or third pitch that they're truly confident in when the count is set up for that specific pitch. I think the older you get, the more you develop that in the minors. Yeah, but think about that as a career choice. So I don't know if you guys have been around minor league baseball. I covered it, weirdly, I covered it. I spent it this whole story on the Biloxi Shuckers because they were homeless for like two months, never had a stadium.

so they had to play every game was in a row game. So that was one of the first things I did ESPN. And you know, like the, but you can imagine even if it was your own son or you might have had buddies who like gave it a shot, right, whereas in minor league baseball. And there's a moment, there's a time what's like, hey man, I don't think it's going to happen for you. Might be time to get on with life, right? Like he's 25, 26, and you make nothing in the minors, nothing.

And you're living a rough life and you're still chasing the dream. But I position that against. One of my favorite books is I read the biography of R.A. Dickey. I was just inspired by R.A. Dickey. You guys remember him? Oh, yeah. Knuckleballer. He did not break through.

Oh, does he live there? Yeah. He went to Tennessee, right? Yeah. Rangers drafted him, and he was kind of a bust. But, and I say that complimentary, because he chased the dream and didn't break through until he was like 34. Now, in that time, he decided to become a knuckleballer,

and he had to, like, start over and learn how to throw a knuckleball. And then he got the $50 million contract at, like, age 37. So it's an awesome story of chase it, chase it, chase it, and it finally came through late bloomer. But on the other hand, you know, mom, dad's probably like, it might be time to get that insurance job. Well, it's, I love the R.A. Dickey example. And I did a speaking engage with him last year, in fact,

and he was telling his story. And he talked about the amount of pitches he threw at the University of Tennessee in a college world series season and how he was a hard throwing righty gets to the Rangers organization. And at some point, they do a full physical of him and they decide, hey, you really don't have an elbow. You know, whatever the injury was, the time you've got nothing left. There's nothing you can do. And he said, this was not my intent, but I had to pivot, right? If I was going to do anything, it wasn't really to sit. this is what I had to do to have a career to learn the knuckleball.

But I think of that R.A. Dickey example, and the more you watch Major League Baseball now, the more I see and hear the story of the guy who they thought was going to be a starter, he's a top two or three round pick of an organization. But he gets there and he becomes a great eighth inning guy for the team. And then he has a career as an eighth inning guy, a guy they thought was just a hard-throwing closer that didn't have enough pitches. But then he becomes a starter, and he's the fifth starter. on a team and slowly works his

way up. There are more stories like that, not as extreme because of injury as R.A. Dickey and not as extreme as a knuckleballer. But I do feel like we're starting to see more of those stories where an organization thinks one thing and then someone adjust and they become something totally different.

I'm still thinking about the WMBA and how great they have it traveling compared to minor league baseball or the arena football league with their they're worried about traveling commercial. At least they get to fly. It's not a bus. No, it's not a bus. It's not the Cleveland Indians bus

from the movie Major League. No, they have to go on that. Hey, did you guys watch the Tom Brady roast? Yes, we did. Well, I got through some of it. I think it was a long roast. They're all saying, yes. Three hours.

You know what my current obsession has been ever since the Tom Brady roast is following plastic surgeons on social media figuring out what all these dudes are doing. Now, when I say all these dudes, there was two that caught my attention. Brady and Ben Affleck. and they're and and they're doing some things it's pretty it's pretty clear uh they're doing and

hey i guess more power to them they look them they look brady looks amazing but uh what does he have done okay so you'll me tell you what the internet says what the plastic surgeons on the on instagram say hair transplant um then you do something where you i can't remember i think you take you i can't remember if you inject filler or take out to make your cheek bones come out more and then you inject something i think it's an injection i don't know if it's injection or surgery jaw line so so it just makes everything real angular and tight you know under the carriage and on the jaw line and smooth and i'm telling you just like a couple years ago i was like i had a doctor tell me you have no idea how many dudes walking around south beach are on

hg like just for vanity i think we're going to have to get prepared there's a lot of dudes walking around with some face enhancements that we're not capable of keeping up with. So Tom Brady, who claims that he's never had a sip of coffee in his life, is injecting filler into it. I absolutely believe he's doing that. All the jokes, too, about him, you know. There's nothing to believe. Come on.

Yeah, he's doing it for sure. You're saying, John, are you saying he's not? No, I'm not saying he's not. I just, I mean, like, this whole TB 12 thing, and then he's, you know, all of a sudden just injecting filler into his cheekbones. and then doing something else with his jaw line is just ridiculous. Compared to not having coffee for your entire life. What was the joke that he looks like,

Ken doll that was microwaved at some point. That's what Tom Brady looks like now. He's definitely doing something. It's like nip tuck, that old show, NFL edition. He's got to get ready for fun. When you look at Tom Brady, I think the hair thing is one. Certainly something with the eyes is going on with Tom Brady.

The cheekbones, absolutely. And I look at Ben Affleck. You know the new technology where they can almost put a filter on your face every time you're on camera. Apple TV shows are very good at doing this. My wife and I are watching a show with Kristen Wigg in it. I don't know that that's Kristen Wigg all the time, or they've got like some sort of filter over a face. Like the B-aging technology they put on Harrison Ford in the latest Indiana Jones movie that makes them look different, shinier. I don't even know if it's younger.

It's just like a shine to their face that doesn't look real. Angelic. And this is every character on this show. And I could name some other Apple TV shows that I'm convinced every character has some sort of filler on their face that the camera does. That's what Ben Affleck looks like just normally. Like without some sort of camera trick, it looks like someone with plastic surgery put that type of effect on his face. Look at how great Will looks. He's got the filter on right now.

You can tell. Definitely some cheekbone implants on Will is what I'm sensing. Oh, I'm working on it. I'm getting the jaw. I'm getting the jaw done next. By the way, Tom, if you're listening, you look amazing. You look amazing. Live, last topic I wanted to talk about you guys with.

So this is the headline of ESPN. Live golf introduces trade window to allow teams to swap players. Okay. I guess I kind of knew that they did team golf in Live, but I didn't really know. So I don't know if you guys are golf fans, but there are teams. Listen to the names of these teams. Bryce and Deschambeau's team is the Crusher's G.C. John Roms is Legion 13.

Ripper G.C. led by Cameron Smith. Ironheads G.C. Captain by Kevin Knaw. I didn't, I mean, I'm not a golf fan like enough to know this is what's going on and live. I can't think of anything where there's been such an investment. So much money spent on something. that has produced such little actual on-field, on-course, on-court interest in the history of sport. Well, they're going to, they're going to go off the off-the-course intrigue is there.

But actual on-course intrigue about these tournaments and the team aspect of golf, that's the crushers is the one that I've heard that you just mentioned, Will. I've not heard of a single other team and live. Well, I mean, I think they're just sitting back. I mean, they haven't had the success, but they're going to. They're going to own golf because they're just sitting back waiting on the PGA to not have a deal. According to Dan Rappaport, you've got Patrick Cantley, who's calling the shots for the PGA tour. You've got Jimmy Dunn and Ed Hurley, who negotiated that June 6th agreement, who haven't been involved in any negotiation since then. And Roy McElroy, who was open to coming back onto the player's policy board, is now saying he's not.

And that was right after he was apparently offered, what, $800 million. The whole thing is a mess. Meanwhile, Liv is just sitting back giving all these, you've got teams that you are, you're just, I think they just hand, they just hand pick players that they want to own the team as part of their, it's part of their offer, you know, the hundreds of billions of dollars they're giving them. You also get a team in your name. I guess they choose the name. I would love this, right? Who cares about, do people care? Do they care if the crushers beat the ironheads?

Well, why do the players care? That was the other thing. Like, why is this a part of that negotiation? There's clearly something there. I don't know. I think the players, I think if they're going to get that much money, they care about the money. So they're going to take the check and the money. And then it's like, oh, you also get to have your own team.

I guess you're thinking, cool. Might as well do it in case it takes off. But to answer your question, Will, no, no one cares about the crushers and the Ironhead. I've not seen, I've not had a single person ask me on the street. Did you see the score between the Crusher's and the Ironheads this past weekend in that live event that was on whatever? I'm going to start doing that. Is now? Or is it still UPN or whatever network they cut a deal with?

It is the least successful money-driven venture I've seen. But the crazy thing is, it does not matter because the money that it's coming from, it's endless. So all they're doing is flooding the market with money in a non-successful venture in order to bankrupt the PGA and force the PGA to merge with them. Because they're going to have to. I don't think they want to merge anymore. I think they want to collapse internally and they'll end up owning golf. And the scary thing is what sport is next. That's what I keep up to.

What American sport is next that they could pull this off with? That's what... What American sport? Yep. Tennis? It will be harder. So I just know because I'm a soccer fan. Well, this is where...

So I only know this because I'm a big soccer fan, right? So I've seen what they've done in other sports, what they've done in soccer. and the M.O. has been to go in and buy teams, right? So they own Paris-St. Germain. They own Manchester. When I say they, the Middle Eastern oil countries, right? And it's not all Saudi Arabia. They just bought their first in Newcastle. It's the UAE. It's Qatar. And they own Newcastle. They being the Middle Eastern countries. PSG and Manchester City. And then they invest a ton of money into them. And they get really good. All the teams are, you know. But they can't do that in America as easily. because of the thing that, I don't know how we feel about it, because of the salary cap. Like, you'd be limited on what you could do. Like, they could buy the Oklahoma City Thunder, right? But you can't, that's a bad example because they're good anyway. But you could buy whoever, the Orlando Magic, but you're not going to be able to flood them with money because there's a salary cap.

I guess soft cap sports, you could pay the taxes, just I don't care, I'll pay the taxes and make those teams great. I think there's somewhat limited in what they can do in America. Well, at some point, though, the NFL is going to be a part of this. How many people on the planet have over $10 billion? You know, I know who does, and I know where, what area of the world they're in. You've got $10 billion was the offer for the Miami Dolphins. Like, at some point, what's the value of an NFL franchise if the wealthiest people in the planet can't bid on it? to me that's where that's the next venture and I'm I'm not naive enough to think that we won't see a preseason game there at some point and to your point will you're right about the salary cap structure in American professional sports preventing that type of European soccer team take over and making them good what I fear is a scenario where they do what they did the PGA and they go and offer every great basketball player a bunch more money to go.

play in a different league that they own and that would basically hold the NBA hostage because now we have all of your players not playing in your league and playing in ours right forcing them to the negotiating table and now all of a sudden Adam Silver is having to deal with the private investment fund and have some sort of merger where they now own 40% of the NBA and then now you can have your players back and your NBA back and oh by the way five years from now we're going to own 80% of the NBA. And before we know it, Saudi Arabia owns the NBA. And it's not just about owning one team or whatever. Chad's right. I mean, it's more about once they're in, it's their influence, right? The direction of said league. I don't even know

if it's about spending money to win as much as it is getting your foot in the door and then influencing everyone else. Yeah, that's a really interesting scenario. I mean, part of me is like I saw something in the day where somebody projected that a NBA player will be making $100 million dollars in the next couple of years a year 100 million a year the money's getting so absurd and so i was thinking about that chat when you're describing that but i mean they were offering those soccer guys some of those soccer guys like i think the offer to messy was it was hundreds of millions of dollars a year to come play there which he turned down to come own uh part of miami in the mLS so yeah i mean they can over they can come over the top no matter how big the

salaries get in in america they can come over the top well um my takeaway from our conversation today is my family's already like um a little out on me because my mood it was one among the most immature things that i do you know i wake up like this morning um after the stars and the mavericks lose and my mood is impacted that i'm still immature i'm like that that's the way it is uh so i'm gonna just go ahead and push it over the top and next time they ask me why i'm up so i'm like killed by the ironheads. I'm going to take on a golf team just to put it over the top. They're going to be surprised by that and probably think that you're a degenerate gambler now

if you're that upset about the Crusher's loss that you have some money on that one because there's no way they're going to buy that you actually cared about the live results. How are we going to feel when kids begin mentioning the crushers and ironheads and we don't know what they're talking about, Chad? I don't know. If we get there, I'm getting gear. Yeah, we'll find out. I've got an almost nine-year-old right now.

Maybe she'll be a huge crushers fan one day. Who knows? Yeah, we should get gear. I definitely want that gear. I want that shirt. What kind of merch do they have in the live? Maybe we'll load up on gear, Chad. We'll send Wilson.

All right, awesome. Hot Mike, Chad Withrow, Jonathan Hutton. Always great to have you here on the Will Kane show. Thanks, fellas. Thank you, Will. There you go. I hope you enjoyed that conversation. with Jonathan Hutton and Chad Withrow of Hot Mike.

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